True Love
by Deadpool-Killer
Summary: My take on what happened between Hatter saying goodbye to Alice and when he arrived in her world.


Hatter watched Alice get shoved through the looking glass and out of his life. He took a deep breath and readjusted his hat. His heart was in his throat and he hated every moment of it. This was not a feeling they sold in any tea shop. He closed his eyes feeling tears brewing. He could have followed her but she didn't see him that way. He was just her buddy. He could never be Jack.

"Hatter." Speak of the devil. The King, Jack Heart, beckoned Hatter from across the room. Hatter assumed that a fiery temper was genetic so he hurried over, fighting the urge to run away or punch Jack in the neck. The King of Wonderland smiled at him and asked, "How are you today, Hatter?"

"I am well, thank you, your highness," Hatter answered with his head bowed slightly. He hated royalty but Jack was part of the resistance. Some respect was due to the bastard.

Jack scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. He said, "Hatter, look me in the face. I am not my mother. You will leave with your head no matter the outcome of this conversation. You were a friend the Alice and for that you are a friend to the Kingdom."

Hatter shifted uneasily trying to keep his voice even, "Thank you." This was awkward and he needed to leave. He wanted to shut himself in his office and drink tea until he couldn't feel anymore.

"She is a special girl isn't she." It should have been a question but he stated it confidently. Hatter just nodded. He didn't trust the words in his throat. Jack eyed him a moment then looked over Hatter's shoulder and scanned the room. "You know the supply of instant gratification tea is the last. Once it is gone it will be gone forever. You will go back to normal tea. The kind that warms your belly and soothes the body naturally. You know, it's been a long time since I have had tea that wasn't spiked with even the tiniest bit of Glee or Wonderment. Well, I have had Oyster tea in their world but that is vile stuff."

Hatter hadn't thought of that. The shop was barely surviving before the draining of Oyster emotions. It had been so long ago he had forgotten. "That will be a shame. Some people are very hooked on those emotions. They won't know how to survive without them." Yes. Talking shop with the king would do. Just no more mention of Alice. His heart couldn't take it.

Jack continued to stare off into the distance as he spoke, "Did you ever see what pure True Love did when we had it? It was such a brief sample before we blended it in with other emotions. Dangerous stuff."

Hatter nodded and said, "I managed to get a hold of a few vials. It was tricky but I pulled some strings. I knew True Love would be a fun gun to fire. By the time I got it though it was already pegged as strong and a drug. I wasn't allowed to sell it."

"You did anyway, didn't you?" Jack said smiling, knowingly.

Hatter chuckled nervously, "I needed the cash. I still have one vial somewhere, but the other two I sold to two teenagers. A boy and a girl. They paid triple its price. They stood right there in front of me and each swallowed them both. No drops. No fusion into natural tea. They just knocked them back like flu medicine."

"What happened to them? Do you know?"

"They both were so enthralled with each other. They only had eyes for each other. They embraced like someone would tear them apart at any moment. They spoke in wild love tongues that disgust the mind to hear on the outside. I dismissed them quickly. Their families came knocking a few hours later. Apparently they snapped while the stuff was wearing off."

"And?"

Hatter cleared his throat remembering and stared at the ground. "He drank poison. She stabbed herself with a dagger. They both died and no one really knows why. Such a tragedy. Their families blamed me, but I turned them away. They had no proof. It was the True Love that did it, not me. The stuff drove them mad."Hatter felt his stomach twist. He had always felt the tiniest bit guilty for those kids deaths but he buried that all deep down.

Jack nodded and said, "True love is a tricky thing. Getting it out of Oysters was harder than anything else. You can force them to feel almost every emotion, but true love? That comes to them when even they don't expect it. And even if we could get them to feel it they resisted it. Oysters are funny that way. They fight such wonderful feelings for the sake of self preservation and most of them don't even realize it."

Hatter had no idea where this conversation was going anymore. He started getting uncomfortable again and eyed the Looking Glass. They were shutting it down. The last Oyster had passed through.

Jack continued, "Did you ever see someone take True Love without someone taking it with them? No, probably not. It has to be the most gruesome things I have ever seen. To conjure that feeling with no one around or no one to feel it back to you wrecks the mightiest man. Once, a man drank some in his basement and went insane from loneliness. Drowned himself. An older woman used some after her husband died to help feel that spark again. She dug up his coffin and dragged it home. They found her a few weeks later laying in the coffin curled up with her dead husband. She just withered away day by day until she passed. That was why we took it out of production and just mixed it with other feelings. A pinch of True Love and Excitement are magic together as I am sure you know. It was the safest thing. The side effects were too dangerous when it was pure. We sold a watered down version just called Love but it wasn't anything nearly as powerful."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I am following you, sir." Hatter searched his brain but his eyes just drifted to the Looking Glass. He couldn't think with that thing near him. He just watched it, waiting for Alice to come tumbling out again. He shook the thoughts from his head to find Jack staring at him, smiling.

"Hatter, true love is a volatile thing. Feeling it and having someone feel it with you is something that cannot be reproduced. The organic feeling alone Oysters spend a lifetime chasing and most never achieve it. Feeling that spark without someone to show it to you is the worst torture anyone can endure. No one survives it. If you do survive, it wasn't true love. Once you find it you spend your life trying to keep it. I have never felt it. I thought I did with Alice but watching her leave I know that she doesn't belong here with me. I will survive her departure."

"Well that certainly is charming of you." Hatter rolled his eyes before he remembered he was addressing the King. He cleared his throat again and remained still.

Jack laughed a moment then said, "You love her."

Hatter's world stopped. He looked up at the King of Wonderland, Alice's ex-boyfriend. He felt a wave of emotion crash on him and he blurted out, "What am I supposed to do? She can't stay here! I don't want her here! 'Hey Alice, come live with me in my failing tea shop in the broken down ruins of Wonderland that is ruled by your freakishly tall and good looking ex boyfriend.' Yeah, that would go over well for everyone." He huffed feeling a bit better to get that out.

"My friend, I have seen the madness that a lost love can cause and I will have none of it in my kingdom. I am trying to rebuild this from the bottom up and the last thing I need is a tea shop owner gnawing off his own arm to see if he still feels anything. It will not be a good way to get people off instant gratification. They will think you are an addict in withdraw." A suit walked up behind Jack and handed him a small brown bag. Jack took it and dismissed the suit. He handed Hatter the bag. "Take this."

Hatter did as he was told but cautiously. He opened it up and looked inside. There was a cell phone, Oyster money, a change of clothes and toiletries. Hatter looked up to Jack with big eyes and asked, "What are you… What is all this?"

"Hatter, I am banning you from Wonderland. I will not have a love sick shop owner in my realm. Not when the key to his happiness is one shove through that Looking Glass."

"But…"

"No buts. You are going and you are going now. If I had loved Alice as much as you do or her for me, she would have accepted my offer of marriage moments ago. She would have stayed to be my queen." Only for a moment did Jack's eyes flicker with pain. He made his face stone again and added, "Anyone who loved that woman truly and would let her go is—"

"Please don't say 'mad as a hatter.'"

Jack smirked, "No, I was going to say 'stupid.'"

Hatter finally looked at Jack man to man. He saw Jack's sorrow for his rejection but he saw that it would not destroy him.

He didn't know what to do. All he wanted from Alice was a hug. A real hug. He just wanted to be near her all the time. He wanted to protect her. Well, he wanted to attempt to protect her while she saved herself and kicked people in the face. He wanted to stroke her hair when she slept. He wanted to make her tea in the afternoon. He wanted to hear about her life. He wanted to bring her home a kitten and watch her face light up. Oh God…

He did love her.

What was he thinking? How did he let her go? He started bouncing up and down with worry and anguish. Jack watched him with amusement and put his hand on his shoulder to steady him. "Exhale. It will all be fine. Take these things and find her. If there is anything I want for Alice it is her happiness and for some odd reason you are her happiness. I can see it in both of your eyes. I saw it with that awkward little goodbye you just had. It is actually rather revolting to be honest." The King of Wonderland nodded to him and turned to leave. "They will escort you through the Looking Glass." He stopped suddenly, turned and said sternly, "But if you hurt her, I will be sure to personally remove your head."

Hatter swallowed hard, "Noted."

He was led to the Looking Glass and felt a hand on his back. He swallowed his fear a moment and the technician said, "Breathe." And with that he was shoved through the Looking Glass and into a strange new world.

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**A/N: I hope you liked it! My first jump back into fan fic in a LONG time! This is some warm up before I start a longer chapter story. Reviews please! They are helpful encouragement. :)**


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